Purify Yourself

Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. All who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure.

‌1 John 3:2–3

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This passage tells us two important things about the coming of Jesus. The first is that when He comes we shall be made like Him. What a glorious thought! That we Christians, those who have strived all our lives to be Christ-like (for that is what the word 'Christian' means) will one day achieve our goal and finally be like Him.

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The second thing we glean from this passage is found in verse three when it says that “all who have this hope in Him purify themselves, just as He is pure.”

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The great Christian thinker A.W. Tozer, likened this purification process to the preparation a bride undergoes for her wedding day. ‌Before her wedding a bride usually takes great care to prepare herself and her appearance for her husband. She has hair and makeup appointments scheduled from early in the morning until the time of the wedding. She has people there to help her with her hair and to help her get her dress on and to style her. She wants to look just right. ‌And Tozer asks, “should not the church of Jesus Christ be dressed worthy of her bridegroom, even as He is dressed? Pure—even as He is pure?” [A. W. Tozer, The Apostles’ Creed (Chicago, IL: Moody Publishers, 2023), 98–99.]

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This is why “all who have this hope in Him purify themselves, just as He is pure.” Because we want to be found pleasing to our husband, pleasing to the Lord Jesus when He comes.

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So, let me ask. What are you currently purifying about your life? It’s a constant struggle to be holy. All of us are works in progress, and we should always be working on something. Otherwise we may not be making any progress. So, find something in your life right now to purify yourself from.